Do tangs eat grape Calepra algea.

[codyreed29]

My tank has become over ride with this algea I have been pulling it off my frags and it's growing like mad out of control. That Nd the dawn glass anemones are dominating my tank.

I am putting all this rock in my 29 and my lbs sells these tiny little hippo tangs less than one inch would he eat off the calepra? Then I could re home it and get another.

 

[Dmorty217]

I say no way but there is a off chance that a hungry enough fish will eat it... I think a large tang or angel stands a lot better chance of eating it over a small one

 

[sreefs]

I say no way but there is a off chance that a hungry enough fish will eat it... I think a large tang or angel stands a lot better chance of eating it over a small one

I would agree with this, I find most small tangs like high protein foods like mysis.

 

[codyreed29]

I don't see any other way of getting rid of the stuff and the last thing I want is to be pulling it off rocks weekly for the next year.

 

[Dmorty217]

Problem is the size tang you need to get is too big for your tank. You need to find a tang that someone is getting rid of for eating coral... That's your best chance for getting one to eat grape algae. Fish are real hit and miss... My buddy who has a emperor angel claims his eats aiptasia, mine not so much. He also had a hippo that ate bubble algae

 

[Stevenliu9]

I had a grape calerpa take over a small 28G cube a while back and what I ended up doing was taking all the rock out and brush them clean of it. It's a lot of manual work but it's the best way. Another option is a rabbitfish- my fox face eats any macro algae I throw in, including calerpa. But then you'll need to upgrade first, 29 is not suitable for any vegetarian fish, tangs or rabbitfish.

 

[codyreed29]

Well I guess I will get to picking do you think I could use emerald crabs and maybe a court jester and a black sailfin blenny and then re home them?

 

[Betta132]

Try a tuxedo urchin. At the least, they'll tear it up and make it very unhappy.
I wouldn't suggest a court jester, they mostly eat hair algae. Same with sailfins, I think.
Emerald crab or two and a tuxedo urchin would probably be your best bet.

 

[Stevenliu9]

Well I guess I will get to picking do you think I could use emerald crabs and maybe a court jester and a black sailfin blenny and then re home them?

Emerald crab ime doesn't really do much algae control, court jester won't touch camera, nor the Benny ( had all three in my tank with clearly before and none of them touched camera.)

 

[Stevenliu9]

Try a tuxedo urchin. At the least, they'll tear it up and make it very unhappy.
I wouldn't suggest a court jester, they mostly eat hair algae. Same with sailfins, I think.
Emerald crab or two and a tuxedo urchin would probably be your best bet.

+1 for urchin, they might help somewhat, but if you have a camera epidemic the growth rate will be faster than what urchin can wreck. Also urchins can "remodel" your rock work

 

[codyreed29]

Great I wish I would've realized the problem when it first started going. It has grown like mad over half the rocks in my tank.

A good note is I will be upgrading and can do a lot of manual removal of it.
And I will be moving all my corals into a frag quarantine so I guess it's all got to be done manually but I will just put what I can't get rid 90 in the sump refugium.